Williamson Medical Center staff administers first doses of COVID-19 vaccine to frontline healthcare workers

Williamson Medical Center joined the ranks of hospitals across the state on Friday in administering their first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to its own frontline healthcare workers.

Physicians Tufik Assad and Uchechukwu Sampson were the first two staff members vaccinated, both of whom have been among the healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients at WMC since March at the beginning of the ongoing pandemic.

“I have a lot of emotions, but mostly I am really excited to see a light at the end of the tunnel," Assad said after his receiving the vaccination.

"People need to drop their fears and concerns and trust the health experts, and just get it. This is what we’ve been waiting for to get us to the point of herd immunity where we can get our lives back closer to normal.”

WMC has received 975 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and will be distributing them in phases to certain segments of the population based on certain risk factors, with frontline healthcare workers receiving it first. View below to see the full vaccine allocation phase plan:

Following his vaccination, Sampson called on all Tennesseans to get vaccinated when possible to help curb the spread of the deadly virus.

"It is important to take this seriously," Sampson said. "Please get vaccinated when you can. It is our duty. We are fighting a war and we all need to join together as a nation and as a community.”

The Pfizer vaccine requires two immunization rounds, so those receiving the vaccine will receive a second dose three weeks later, with an up to 35-day period before recipients receive immunity from the virus after the second shot.

WMC is not mandating that its employees get vaccinated, but instead is "encouraging" them to do so "for their own protection," as well as to help curb the overall spread of the virus.

Nashville Endocrinologist Stephen Sharp recently sat down to answer a number of questions related to the vaccine's safety, as well as how the clinical trials were conducted: Click here to read his answers.